Russia’s Relationship With Hamas, Palestinian Authority – Putin’s Global Calculations

There is no evidence Moscow knew about the Oct. 7th Hamas attack, but Putin benefits from the resultant chaos, including Western distraction from his war on Ukraine. At least 16 Russian citizens died as a result of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, but Moscow did not condemn Hamas directly. And while the Kremlin labels some of its own — peaceful — political opponents as terrorists, it did not give this designation to Hamas. Instead, President Vladimir Putin blamed U.S. policies for the current Middle East crisis. He compared Israel’s blockade of Gaza to Nazi Germany’s siege of Leningrad…